Twitter follows

Looking to follow marketing-oriented Twitterers? Here are just a few of the many good Twitter accounts I'm following, listed in no particular order:

http://twitter.com/MarketingWeekEd (Marketing Week magazine)
http://twitter.com/IABUK (Internet Advertising Bureau)
http://twitter.com/iab (Internet Advertising Bureau US)
http://twitter.com/DMA_UK (Direct marketing association)
http://twitter.com/comScore (digital media measurement)
http://twitter.com/Econsultancy (consultancy focusing on marketing/e-commerce)
http://twitter.com/BrandRepublic (publishes Campaign, other publications)

Affluent buyers driving car sales in China

The Telegraph reports that successful entrepreneurs eager for status-symbol cars are driving sales of luxury vehicles in China these days. Rolls-Royce, BMW, and other upmarket brands are enjoying the sales surge in China. BMW expects to sell 100,000 cars in China this year alone.

China's increasingly affluent population is opening wallets wide for cars, even as the much of the rest of the planet struggles to escape sluggish economic conditions. In fact, China has become the world's largest market for cars. No wonder Volkswagen and others are investing heavily to expand production in China.

Honda and Toyota are both looking at boosting production of smaller cars, to compete with the compact models made by local Chinese manufacturers. US automakers such as Ford are considering expansion of their joint ventures in China, to reach this very important market.

Meanwhile, the Chinese automaker SAIC, which owns the MG brand, is showing new concept cars at this week's Beijing Auto Show. Above are two views of the MG Zero, which may or may not be coming to dealerships in the future.

Where will global car marketing be headed in 2010?

Earth Day 2010

Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a focus of green activity worldwide. Google is celebrating with a dandy Doodle, as you can see above. Pledging a personal "act of green" is part of this year's UK celebrations.

Many marketers are promoting special Earth Day offers and events. For example, Disney Store UK is donating money to the Woodland Trust every time it sells certain Earth Day merchandise.

Happy green birthday, Earth Day.

Marketing meets the volcano

Consumers and businesses all over the UK and Europe are feeling the effects of the volcanic ash cloud disrupting air travel. Not only are consumers on holiday being prevented from flying home, those who had planned to travel are faced with the decision to wait (for how long, no one knows) or cancel. Many consumers are choosing to rebook their trips for later in the year, according to travel marketers.

Commercial cargo bound for North America is going by ship if it goes at all...hurting exporters who depend on timely shipments and payments. The delays also hurt just-in-time manufacturers who carefully time receipt of raw materials to avoid holding a lot of inventory. They also hurt marketers who had planned promotions around products that are coming out of Europe.

Asos, an online fashion retailer, has switched from air to train delivery for customers in Europe. For overseas delivery, the retailer's chief executive tells the London Evening Standard: "Our customers understand that they will just have to wait a bit longer for their clothes.”

At the same time, businesses outside Europe are looking at alternative sources of supply. Dutch orchids may be sitting in airport warehouses waiting for the first flight out, but New Zealand growers are seeing higher orders because they can get their flowers to Dubai or Detroit or other areas unaffected by the ban on air travel.

No one knows how long the volcano will continue to send up plumes of ash. That's why it makes sense to take a close look at your marketing plan and see whether the volcano is a threat or opportunity (or a bit of both).

Asda vs Tesco and Sainsbury

Asda just announced ambitious plans to become the UK's largest retailer of non-food merchandise by 2015--which means a head-to-head fight with Tesco.

Asda also aims to become the UK's second-largest food retailer by 2015, setting off a food fight with the grocery giant Sainsbury.

Such market-share predictions can be risky but also an inspiring challenge internally. The Telegraph reported in 2008 that Tesco aimed to overtake Carrefour as the world's #2 retailer by the end of 2012. So far, Carrefour has maintained its position (behind the global #1 retailer, Asda parent Walmart), with two years to go before the 2012 deadline approaches.

Of course, when retailers use market share as a metric for measuring performance, they're hoping for significant change in competitive positions. Now that the economic slowdown seems to be finally nearing an end, these retail giants may be in a better position to do something about achieving the market-share changes they're aiming for.

Blog anniversary: looking back, looking ahead

This blog debuted in April 2009. During the past year, I've written more than 100 posts, about everything from Abbey Bank to Zara. I've covered all kinds of marketing topics . . . advertising, branding, retailing, pricing, market segmentation, social media and so many more.

Looking ahead, I plan to write about how marketing affects competition, brands that are especially customer-oriented, building buzz, marketing channel issues, strategic marketing concerns and dozens of other subjects that relate to marketing planning.

Watch for the new edition of my Essential Guide to Marketing Planning, to be published at the end of May, with new case studies, new concepts and some new checklists. Thank you for reading!

Bye bye, Bebo?

Bebo, the social networking site owned by AOL, has been losing users and is in danger of being shut down. Facing intense competition from Facebook, in particular, Bebo has not been able to retain its once-loyal user base.

One source tells the Telegraph: "The company was not that good at listening to user feedback, doing market research or beta testing." Another source tells the Guardian: "At one point, we had 40 engineers when Facebook had something like 2,000. You can't produce a good product fast enough at that scale. In fact you can't even keep the site running properly."

AOL is trying to find a buyer or, failing that, will close Bebo down by the end of 2010.

Just two years ago, Bebo was one of the most popular social sites (if not the most popular) for teens worldwide. Today, it still has some faithful fans but was unable to overcome Facebook's never-ending expansion into all age ranges.

Even a market leader has to pay close attention to what customers like and don't like; even the strongest businesses have potential weaknesses that competitors can use to their advantage. Customer loyalty must be earned, day after day--and it can be lost with just a few clicks.

Bye bye, Bebo?

ROI in social media

Is it possible to measure the return on your investment in social media? Yes. Should you be doing this? Yes.

Start with your marketing plan objectives. What is each programme or campaign designed to achieve? How can social media help get you closer to your objectives? What metrics can you use to measure the results of social media initiatives as you implement your programme or campaign?

Counting the number of Facebook fans or blog followers is just one aspect of reckoning results, as ClickZ explains in its post on '7 easy ROI metrics'. I especially like the suggestion to create tracking links using shortened URLs like bit.ly and is.gd for individual social media messages. Then you can count the number of times people click on each link and see how well each draws compared with projected results and previous campaigns.